Comments

I'm not sure that there is a trademark infringement. For one thing nobody
is going to confuse the two events as they are held 750 miles apart and are
clearly labeled San Diego and Salt Lake City respectively. It is unlikely in the
extreme that anyone who intended to go to the San Diego event is going to book a
flight to Salt Lake City. What this is about is an attempt to own the monkier,
"comic con" which is a description out there in general usage these days
and if it trademarked that should never have been permitted, it's absurd.

FanaticoRIVERTON, UT

Aug. 11, 2014 2:05 p.m.

Winning! Salt Lake Comic Con is getting awesome national and international
marketing from this lawsuit! Stick with the fight, because you are going to win
and get great exposure along the way! Google Salt Lake Comic Con and search
news to see all of the widespread media attention Salt Lake Comic Con is getting
from this! There are hundreds of Comic Con's across the country... Salt
Lake Comic Con is not going to lose. Google the article from Forbes about this
since I can't post a link: salt lake comic con facing down the 800 pound
gorilla

J-TXAllen, TX

Aug. 10, 2014 7:13 a.m.

@My2Cents;

You may want to look up big words before you use them.
"ineluctable" means "unavoidable".

Perhaps you meant
to say they were trying to steal "intellectual property", in which case:
WOW.

mrjj69bountiful, UT

Aug. 10, 2014 12:59 a.m.

what a waste of court time and tax money.

gittalopctbiGlendale, AZ

Aug. 9, 2014 2:55 p.m.

Those of you siding with San Diego, and particularly My2Cents who is calling the
SLC Comic Con a fraud and copy cat are really ignoring some basic facts. First
"comic con" and any variant is an abbreviation of "comic
convention" which is a fan convention. SLC is not the only one to do a comic
convention. If you do an Internet search, you come up with several, some of
which are: New York Comic Con, Emerald City Comicon, Denver Comic Con, Ocala
Comic Con, Central Coast Comic Con, Indiana Comic Con, Minneapolis Comic Con,
Cincinnati Comic Con, Niagra Falls Comic Con, Capitol City Comic Con, Boston
Comic Con, etc. etc. etc. That's only counting the ones in the US and not
ones in Canada, India, UAE, UK, and Romania. So you are saying that San Diego
Comic-Con (hyphenated) has a chance in court when all of these plus others use
"Comic Con?" They are just jealous of SLC, plain and simple.

To me, them trying to sue for use of "comic con" would be like the
largest PGA tournaments suing another tournament for the use of the term
"Open" in their title. Right, that would be ridiculous.

ReasonableDoubtSyracuse, UT

Aug. 9, 2014 1:45 p.m.

This should be settled out of court. Going immediately to the court system
reflects inflexibility by both parties. Yes, Salt Lake Comic Con got singled
out, because they started strongly enough to eventually equal or overtake SD CC.
If there is brand confusion on the part of fans, then SL CC needs to modify
their name somehow. If there is no brand confusion and any name would work for
SL CC, then SD CC needs to face the fact that name similarity is not what is
driving this business. So which is the case? I think the answer is obvious,
there were MORE fans at the SL event that did NOT use the comic con name. The
parties should meet somewhere in the middle and settle this. SD CC is facing an
issue that most innovators have to face at some point, the emergence of
competitors who may out-compete you. Lawsuits can't fix that for SDCC, they
have to continue to innovate to stay ahead of the pack.

netsrikDraper, UT

Aug. 9, 2014 12:57 p.m.

There are a lot of comic cons around the world. Some MIGHT be affiliated with
San Diego, but not all of them are. Boston Comic Con, Austin Comic Con, New York
Comic Con, Amazing Houston Comic Con are just a few in the US that I just
Googled. There are also cons in the UK, Canada, India among others around the
world that use the term "Comic Con" in their names. Is San Diego going
to sue all of them? I really don't think San Diego has a prayer of
winning. They're just jealous of how big Salt Lake's con got in its
first year.

estreetshuffleWindow Rock, AZ

Aug. 9, 2014 12:29 p.m.

add an 's" to comic; that should fix it.

Dan TaylorKeyser, WV

Aug. 9, 2014 12:23 p.m.

I wonder if the California Comic Con had never been invented, if there would
have been one called comic con in Salt Lake. I doubt it very seriously. This
sure smells like somebody is riding someone elses wave. It will be interesting
to hear the verdict on this one. At this point, I would lean toward California
winning, at least I think that would be the right decision. Hyphen or not!
That is just playing games if that is SLC's whole defense and I doubt it
very much if a court will see it any other way. Well see though.

DCHewBounti, UT

Aug. 9, 2014 11:23 a.m.

This will be interesting. I suspect that many of the people attending the SD
convention will skip SD next year and come to Utah because, nobody likes being
told what to do, especially super heros and cartoon characters.

Mary E PettySandy, UT

Aug. 9, 2014 11:18 a.m.

Interesting article about Trademarks for non-lawyer. "comic
con" is a generic term used in commerce, specific to an industry and
business activity of commercial participants, recognized by all (industry,
practitioners, buyers, sellers, vendors , public, etc.) If I
understand DN article correctly, one practitioner has trademarked their name
using the words of this generic term utilizing punctuation (hyphen) to create a
brand name; and then, it appears that they have not stopped any other users of
this generic term, no matter the format, except for suing a rival. As
I understand trademark law, to have trademark status and maintain it, you must
show evidence you have exclusive rights to the trademark, that you are the only
one using it and you have legally stopped all others from using your trademarked
name. Trademarking common terms used in commerce (grocery store, auto sales,
tire rotation, etc) would create exclusive rights for one practitioner alone. I
don't believe you can do this with US trademark law. Clearly,
you can have more than one use of "comic con" or "auto sales" as
evidenced by the huge industry and business activity built around these terms (See this online for yourself.)

sammygSpringville, UT

Aug. 9, 2014 9:31 a.m.

I rather doubt I'd have snowball's chance in you know where if I came
out with a soft drink named...

Coak

Hyphen, space or
whatever, a reasonable person cannot distinguish the difference between the two
comic conventions.

Frankly, I'm surprised that San Diego
Comic-Con did not prevail against the first copy-cat.

The only
winners will be the attorneys.

2in1yearPleasant Grove, UT

Aug. 9, 2014 8:32 a.m.

Tell me why does this really matter in the long scheme of things? There are
children being murdered in Iraq right now. Couldn't these people save their
attorney fees and look for something useful to spend energy on?

FoxtrotMountain View, CA

Aug. 9, 2014 7:48 a.m.

I love how this article is how the big bad San Diego Comic-Con is attacking the
tiny little helpless Comic con. But my personal (not legal) is that SLC's
version is utilizing a trademark by the San Diego version and gaining benefit
from it. I am betting that a court finds it the same way. The fundamental
difference between with and without a hyphen is irrelevant.

The
Billboards advertising SLC's Comic Con has almost NO wordings on it except
Comic con. I guess I feel it is like putting a label on a soda can called Coca
Cola. No hyphen of course and saying it was different.

SLC is
going to lose. You copied something well known, got great economic benefit.

My2CentsTaylorsville, UT

Aug. 9, 2014 2:50 a.m.

Utah is the fraud capital of the US and the Utah chapter organization are basing
shier conventions, advertising, and plan on the same pattern as the San Diego
company. Utah is a copy cat thief trying to imply they are indeed sanctioned by
and for the California convention.

I think Utah is the fraud and I
would vote them criminals trying to steal ineluctable property from the original
organization who trade marked their idea and name.

Al ThepalSalt Lake City, UT

Aug. 9, 2014 12:19 a.m.

I don't see how San Diego Comic-Con has a leg to stand on in this lawsuit.
They have the trademark for "Comic-Con" but gave up the bid for
"Comic Con". Salt Lake uses "Comic Con", which is not one of the
trade marks held by the San Diego convention. I am no lawyer, but this seems
like a pretty simple case to me.